War... war never changes —

Decade-long Civ II game mired in 1700 years of nuclear war

Starvation, devastation reign in an epic, apocalyptic simulation.

The year is 3991 AD, and the world's three remaining nations have been embroiled in military conflict for 1700 years. 90 percent of the world's peak population has died due to nuclear conflict, and Vikings wield ICBMs. Welcome to the future, as predicted by a 10-year-long game of Civilization II.

Reddit user Lycerius posted about his decade-old Civ II game in the gaming subreddit early Tuesday morning, describing a world where the Vikings, Celts, and Americans are locked in an endless war (disclosure: Reddit is a cousin site of Ars). In the post, Lycerius explains that he was already well into the simulated future in this game when Civ III came out, but wanted to see just how far the game could go and what the world might look like as the simulation continued.

A couple of in-game millenia later, the landscape is mostly "inundated swamp land," as the polar ice caps have managed to melt 20 times. Engineers are constantly building roads for armies that get annihilated the next turn by enemies, and feeding the military beast means the warring nations have no time to clear the swamps or nuclear fallout. The lack of sustainable farmland has led to a starving, miserable world population suffering under Communist and Theocratic control. "I was forced to do away with democracy roughly a thousand years ago because it was endangering my empire," Lycerius writes; his Senate kept overruling him when he wanted to declare war on the Vikings.

Mired in battle, Lycerius asked his fellow redditors how he might move the game forward. The prevailing advice seems to be to convert his nation to Fundamentalism, which prevents further research (everything has already been discovered, anyway, putting all nations on equal footing) but ensures no unhappy citizens and makes buildings produce money instead of happiness. A new religion could give him the monetary and military edge he needs to finally eliminate the other nations. Other redditors are clamoring for Lycerius's save file so they can play out the scenario themselves, and the game has spawned its own subreddit where discussion continues apace.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston